The Seamans Family

A couple of weeks ago we made our incredibly special trip to Disney World with Gigi and Bpop. Ava has been anxiously awaiting this day and it finally happened!

We arrived at the airport extra early just to make sure we had plenty of time to get all of us through security and at the gate on time. We had some time to kill (at least we thought we did, more on that later) before our flight so we went to the club members lounge for some free drinks and snacks.

She was one excited little girl! Connor didn't nap that morning so we were crossing our fingers that he would maybe take a nap in the stroller while walking around the airport or better yet, on the airplane.

At our gate and watching the airplanes take off.
Little did we know that SHE WAS WATCHING OUR PLANE TAKE OFF! Yep, we missed our flight. There was a discrepancy between the time on the flight intinerary (that we were going by) compared to the boarding passes (that we never looked at) and we missed our initial flight by about 10 minutes. When we came to that realization we were all in panic mode. This wasn't happening. I had a moment to myself with a few tears as I thought about that little girl smiling out the window in anticipation of going to Disney World and that sleepy sleepy baby who was being pushed around the airport and just needing an ounce of sleep to get him through. The next flight was at least an hour away and everyone was telling us there is no way there would be enough seats for us. We were told that they had seats on a flight leaving first thing the next day. The day that we were supposed to be walking into the gates of Disney World and having a scheduled breakfast with the princesses. Mikey was determined to find a way to get on the next flight so he went to the gate where the next flight to Orlando was leaving from and he talked with the lady at the desk. She said that she could get at least 3 of us on the next flight on standby and the other 2 on the following flight a few hours later. That was a much better scenario than leaving the next morning but I prayed and prayed that God would get all 5 of us on that next flight, and He did!!!! I was so grateful! Ava did great on the plane as always and Connor did pretty good himself considering he never napped and by the time we landed it was his bedtime.

Our little flight mishap was behind us and didn't matter one bit once we were there.

We stayed at The Dolphin resort and had adjoining rooms with Gigi and Bpop so that we could hang out in their room when little ones were sleeping. We had to get creative with sectioning off part of the hotel room for Connor to sleep and be uninterrupted. We took the shower curtain down and pinned it to the wall seperating the bathroom and entry area, where he slept, from the rest of the room. It seemed to work fine and Ava was so good about whispering and being quiet when we were in the room while he was sleeping.

We woke up early the next morning so that we could get to Magic Kingdom by 8:30 for breakfast with the princesses in the castle!

Waiting for the Disney Bus at our hotel

The man at the gate showing us how our cards work to get us in the park. Ava thought this was cool.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was this moment. Seeing her face the first time she sees the castle! It is kind of hard to see from the video, and she's never been one to be overboard with excitement, but I know her well enough to know what was going through that mind of hers when she saw it and I could see happiness wash over her. What a special moment!

Since we were there before the park opened to the public the main street leading up to the castle was almost empty, something you don't see very often.

We were all very excited, except for C who was clearly ready for a morning nap already. Sorry little buddy, no morning naps on this trip unless it is in your stroller. (I had to relax and let go of that but he ended up pushing through everyday with minimal meltdowns).

Alas, we met the real Cinderella. She greeted us as we entered the castle and once again the look on Ava's face was priceless. She just gazed up at her in silence with a smile on her face. We forgot to pack her autograph book for the princesses to sign so they all signed a blank piece of paper that we happened to have in the backpack. Cinderella was so sweet and even though there was a line of people behind us I didn't feel like she was rushing to get us through the line. She talked with Ava and allowed us to get several pictures with her and she wanted a picture with Connor too. She even kissed his cheek and left perfect lip marks on his cheek. Too cute!

Oops, a little out of order but here is our princess in front of the castle.

(By the way, half of these pictures are taken with my phone and half are with my camera so the quality might not always be there)

Our view as we entered the dining area inside the castle.

They passed out swords and wands and at several points during the breakfast they would have a "wishing star ceremony". Ava took it very seriously...Precious!!!

Cinderella kissed a fella

All 4 of the princesses that were at the breakfast (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, and Jasmine) walked around from table to table to greet the children, write autographs, and take pictures. Definitely a must if you have a daughter and you take them to Disney World! This was really the only way to see the princesses, unless you wanted to scout them out in the park and wait in long lines to see them.

Connor meeting Sleeping Beauty

I was a little disappointed in how dark it was in the castle dining area considering the main part of the experience is getting a picture with the princesses.

She said that Jasmine was her favorite because she was so beautiful. I like the way she is staring at her necklace.

Jasmine also spent the most time talking to Ava and Connor

He was quite the attention getter

I just love how she looked as she met each princess. She was in awe.

After breakfast, and an outfit change, we went outside the castle and saw the Fairy Godmother!

Next up, was the Little Mermaid Under the Sea, "ride". When I say ride, I mean a shell that you sit in that is on a conveyer belt that takes you slowly through a tunnel/cave with scenes from the Little Mermaid. Since it wasn't an actual ride we were able to take Connor on this and all the other "rides" throughout the parks. He needed a pick- me- up badly (you can see how sleepy he was as we waited in line).

I was so impressed with the ride! It was adorable and Ariel and all her friends seemed very real. We loved it!

The girls were in one shell and the boys were in the other right next to us.

After Little Mermaid, we went to the It's a Small World ride. Might have been Connor's favorite as you can see from the dancing.

By that point we could tell that the kids needed some rest so we made our way back to the bus that would take us back to our hotel. We saw this show going on at the castle so we stopped to watch before we went to the bus.

We saw an airplane in the sky spelling out Jesus as we waited for our bus. So neat and so powerful!

Tired sillies on the bus ride back

The kids took about a 2-3 hour nap so when they woke up we were recharged and ready to go again!

We decided to spend the afternoon at Epcot.

Epcot isn't as entertaining for the kids but Ava still had a great time. We did the Finding Nemo ride, looked at fish in the big aquariumm, walked around the different countries (played bongo drums in "Africa" & bought some souveniers in "Germany").

They were very interested in this squirrel

I feel like Connor grew up so much on this trip! He really went with the flow of everything and had a great time. After lots of stroller time we let him walk around with daddy like a big boy.

I'm very glad we rented a double stroller. Eve though Ava didn't ride the whole time, it was nice for her to have a seat and give her little legs a break from all the walking.